Vasanth Sarathy

Vasanth Sarathy is a prominent figure in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and currently serves as a Research Assistant Professor at Tufts University. His research primarily focuses on the intersection of AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP), with a particular emphasis on developing socially competent AI systems that can engage in creative problem-solving and reasoning aligned with social norms.

Educational Background

• Ph.D. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from Tufts University (2020)
• Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Boston University School of Law (2010)
• M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (2005)
• B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Arkansas (2003)

Professional Experience

Before joining Tufts University, Sarathy was a Senior Researcher at Smart Information Flow Technologies (SIFT) from September 2020 to May 2023. During his tenure at SIFT, he collaborated closely with the U.S. Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community, focusing on various AI-related projects, including AI planning, reinforcement learning, and natural language processing.12

Research Interests

Sarathy's research encompasses several key themes:

• Social NLP: Investigating how NLP techniques can reveal patterns in human social behavior.
• Reasoning with Social Norms: Developing AI architectures that utilize social norms for reasoning and understanding language.
• Sense-making and Problem-Solving: Exploring cognitive processes involved in simplifying complex problems for efficient solutions.34

In addition to his academic pursuits, Sarathy is also a published cartoonist, integrating creativity into his professional life.2 His work aims to contribute to applications such as automated writing assistance, intelligent tutoring systems, and improving chatbots and social robots.4